To that point, Walker had been a nice college player, nothing spectacular: a plucky backup point guard on a Final Four team as a freshman, followed by an up-and-down sophomore season that ended in the NIT.

But everything changed at the 2010 Maui Invitational. Actually, it started a few days beforehand, when Walker lit up Vermont to the tune of 42 points at the XL Center — matching Cliff Robinson’s scoring record in the building set 23 years earlier. It continued in Hawaii, when Walker scored 29 of his 31 points in the second half to beat Wichita State in UConn’s first game, dropped 30 on Michigan State the next night and 29 more on John Calipari and Kentucky in the championship game.

“That changed the national perception of him,” Jim Calhoun recalled a couple of weeks ago, “(and) the national perception of us that year, in the sense that we could be a dangerous team.”

Indeed, Walker’s heroics laid the groundwork for his incredible junior season, in which he guided UConn to five wins in five nights to win the Big East tournament, followed by a miracle run to a national title.

Perhaps the 2016 Maui Jim Maui Invitational changes the national perception of Jalen Adams, as well. In a good way, to be sure, but in a very different way than it did for Walker.

Adams was only able to lead the Huskies to one win in three games, and that came against Division II Chaminade (and even that wasn’t easy). And no one is predicting a miracle run to a national title for this year’s UConn team.

But Adams was able to put an injury-riddled, relatively young team on his back this week. And while it didn’t lead to much success, it was certainly impressive to watch.

In his own way, the kid from Roxbury, Massachusetts who typically draws comparisons to another former UConn guard with the clutch gene — Shabazz Napier — may have done his own Kemba impression.

And on Wednesday, after UConn had dug itself another ridiculous (30-9) early hole, Adams spearheaded the comeback. He got the Huskies to within six (67-61) after a driving layup with 4:08 left, though they’d get no closer. Adams finished with a game-high 27 points, to go with five assists and three steals.

Adams, who was named to the all-tournament team, made exactly 12 field goals in all three games. They came on impressive drives to the hoop, a sprinkling of 3-pointers, even an acrobatic fast-break dunk on Wednesday. He clearly established himself as the Huskies’ star on a team that’s now without Larrier for the rest of the season, without Gilbert for at least a few more weeks and without another obvious go-to guy.

Adams took that next step as a player, and as a leader.

“I think I learned a lot about myself in this tournament, but I’m not really concerned about that,” he said. “I’m more concerned about UConn getting wins and getting closer chemistry with my brothers. I just want to win. So, if we’re winning, I don’t care if I score zero points. As long as we’re winning, that’s what matters to me.”

The national perception for Jalen Adams has changed, even without a whole lot of wins to go with it.